Thank you so much to everyone who has already offered their support to Dewey, Ross, and Grant during Cheri’s unimaginable medical emergency that began last week. Ross has been sharing additional updates on Cheri’s condition on her CaringBridge site; please feel free to follow along there as well. Your prayers and well wishes have already meant so much, please continue to send them as Cheri takes the first steps into healing. She is fighting hard—which comes as no surprise to anyone who knows her!
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Last week on the 14th, Dewey and Cheri were playing cards as usual with his sister Rachel and her husband Mike. I’m told that Cheri was, as per usual, a gracious host and competitive card player that night! The next morning, on February 15th, Dewey went to play pingpong while Cheri was still in bed. He returned an hour later to find her on the floor, unresponsive. When he found her, he was able to contact a neighbor who happened to be a nurse. She came over and helped make the decision to call 911. It was apparent that Cheri had been sick and trying to make it down the hall to the bathroom—the original thought was that she may have fallen and bumped her head.
The ambulance transferred Cheri to Mountain Vista hospital in Mesa, where- on what seemed to be somewhat of a whim- they decided to do a CT scan since Dewey had mentioned she bumped her head. Thank God they did that first CT scan, as they found internal bleeding near her brain stem. The doctors at Mountain Vista decided that she should be airlifted to another hospital as the amount of bleeding present looked to be beyond their capabilities- Cheri was then taken by medevac to Abrazo Hospital in Glendale. There, they ordered a second CT scan which showed the bleeding had greatly increased. They decided that they needed to place a shunt to relieve the pressure caused by the massive amount of blood that had collected over the previous 4 hours since the original CT. They successfully placed the shunt but decided, like the first hospital, that Cheri’s condition was too severe to treat her there. She was airlifted a second time, this time to downtown Phoenix at the Barrow Neurological Institute. All of this moved very quickly, but over the course of being evaluated so many times by so many different experts, it became clear that Cheri had suffered from not one, but two brain aneurysms that had ruptured.
Amidst this chaos, Dewey and Cheri’s sons, Ross and Grant, took the first available flight from MN to be by their mom’s side as she fought for her life. Throughout the next day, Friday, the medical team monitored her condition closely, but there continued to be too much blood to perform any intervention. Cheri had been intubated and sedated. Her medical team at Barrow had hoped they would be able to go through an incision in her groin up to where the bleeding originated that day, which they weren’t able to do. While there wasn’t a clear prognosis at this point, the doctors spoke as though it was a very real possibility that Cheri would not pull through, especially since they had to wait until Saturday to perform the surgery.
On Saturday morning, Cheri underwent surgery which required that they remove part of her skull. They were able to clip both of the original aneurysms, but then found a third aneurysm that had not yet ruptured. Thankfully, they were able to remove the third aneurysm as well. The doctors said the surgery went as well as could be expected, but that there was still a long road ahead as they could not be sure of the level of impairment caused by the ruptured aneurysms and everything that followed.
Cheri remained intubated and sedated into Sunday, with a significant amount of brain and face swelling. When the doctors and nurses attempted to extubate and backed off her sedation, Cheri was understandably very confused and became combative, trying to pull the tube out of her throat. They decided to allow her to rest for another day under sedation before extubating successfully on Monday. Cheri has been drifting in and out of consciousness, and is still experiencing some swelling. Signs of hope have including squeezing both of her sons’ hands, bopping her feet three times while Dewey sang to her, and even saying one or two words at a time- including a ‘thank you’ to one of her nurses. They believe she can understand what is being said, she seems to recognize who is with her, and she is showing some cognitive responses to commands. She will for sure be in the ICU for 2-4 weeks, but due to the healing required after such an invasive surgery with a piece of skull removed, may very well be there 4-6 weeks.
No one should ever have to think twice about the costs associated with being by your wife, or your mom’s side, when the absolute worst happens- and thankfully, Ross and Grant were able to get on that emergency flight. But, expenses start to add up extremely quickly when you have to get a hotel room in order to catch even a fitful night’s sleep because you’re in another state ~1680 miles from home, eating hospital cafeteria food for most meals. Without even beginning to think about the medical bills that will follow, the Johnsons are already facing thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars of expenses depending on the length of Cheri’s recovery while they stay by her side in Phoenix. If you have the financial means to help ease this burden, it would be so appreciated.
The plan is to update the fundraising goal to better reflect financial need once it becomes clearer which medical bills will be covered by insurance vs. patient responsibility- there are just too many unknowns currently to estimate how much that will be. The current goal of $25,000 reflects the emergency expenses already incurred, estimated continued expenses to stay near the hospital during Cheri’s ICU stay, and health insurance deductible.
Keep fighting, Cheri- we all love you! Dewey, Ross, and Grant- stay strong by allowing others to help lift you up. Cheri's got the best cheer squad around! ❤️
-Stacey (Johnson) Wright, niece, and Rachel Jensen, sister-in-law
———
Last week on the 14th, Dewey and Cheri were playing cards as usual with his sister Rachel and her husband Mike. I’m told that Cheri was, as per usual, a gracious host and competitive card player that night! The next morning, on February 15th, Dewey went to play pingpong while Cheri was still in bed. He returned an hour later to find her on the floor, unresponsive. When he found her, he was able to contact a neighbor who happened to be a nurse. She came over and helped make the decision to call 911. It was apparent that Cheri had been sick and trying to make it down the hall to the bathroom—the original thought was that she may have fallen and bumped her head.
The ambulance transferred Cheri to Mountain Vista hospital in Mesa, where- on what seemed to be somewhat of a whim- they decided to do a CT scan since Dewey had mentioned she bumped her head. Thank God they did that first CT scan, as they found internal bleeding near her brain stem. The doctors at Mountain Vista decided that she should be airlifted to another hospital as the amount of bleeding present looked to be beyond their capabilities- Cheri was then taken by medevac to Abrazo Hospital in Glendale. There, they ordered a second CT scan which showed the bleeding had greatly increased. They decided that they needed to place a shunt to relieve the pressure caused by the massive amount of blood that had collected over the previous 4 hours since the original CT. They successfully placed the shunt but decided, like the first hospital, that Cheri’s condition was too severe to treat her there. She was airlifted a second time, this time to downtown Phoenix at the Barrow Neurological Institute. All of this moved very quickly, but over the course of being evaluated so many times by so many different experts, it became clear that Cheri had suffered from not one, but two brain aneurysms that had ruptured.
Amidst this chaos, Dewey and Cheri’s sons, Ross and Grant, took the first available flight from MN to be by their mom’s side as she fought for her life. Throughout the next day, Friday, the medical team monitored her condition closely, but there continued to be too much blood to perform any intervention. Cheri had been intubated and sedated. Her medical team at Barrow had hoped they would be able to go through an incision in her groin up to where the bleeding originated that day, which they weren’t able to do. While there wasn’t a clear prognosis at this point, the doctors spoke as though it was a very real possibility that Cheri would not pull through, especially since they had to wait until Saturday to perform the surgery.
On Saturday morning, Cheri underwent surgery which required that they remove part of her skull. They were able to clip both of the original aneurysms, but then found a third aneurysm that had not yet ruptured. Thankfully, they were able to remove the third aneurysm as well. The doctors said the surgery went as well as could be expected, but that there was still a long road ahead as they could not be sure of the level of impairment caused by the ruptured aneurysms and everything that followed.
Cheri remained intubated and sedated into Sunday, with a significant amount of brain and face swelling. When the doctors and nurses attempted to extubate and backed off her sedation, Cheri was understandably very confused and became combative, trying to pull the tube out of her throat. They decided to allow her to rest for another day under sedation before extubating successfully on Monday. Cheri has been drifting in and out of consciousness, and is still experiencing some swelling. Signs of hope have including squeezing both of her sons’ hands, bopping her feet three times while Dewey sang to her, and even saying one or two words at a time- including a ‘thank you’ to one of her nurses. They believe she can understand what is being said, she seems to recognize who is with her, and she is showing some cognitive responses to commands. She will for sure be in the ICU for 2-4 weeks, but due to the healing required after such an invasive surgery with a piece of skull removed, may very well be there 4-6 weeks.
No one should ever have to think twice about the costs associated with being by your wife, or your mom’s side, when the absolute worst happens- and thankfully, Ross and Grant were able to get on that emergency flight. But, expenses start to add up extremely quickly when you have to get a hotel room in order to catch even a fitful night’s sleep because you’re in another state ~1680 miles from home, eating hospital cafeteria food for most meals. Without even beginning to think about the medical bills that will follow, the Johnsons are already facing thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars of expenses depending on the length of Cheri’s recovery while they stay by her side in Phoenix. If you have the financial means to help ease this burden, it would be so appreciated.
The plan is to update the fundraising goal to better reflect financial need once it becomes clearer which medical bills will be covered by insurance vs. patient responsibility- there are just too many unknowns currently to estimate how much that will be. The current goal of $25,000 reflects the emergency expenses already incurred, estimated continued expenses to stay near the hospital during Cheri’s ICU stay, and health insurance deductible.
Keep fighting, Cheri- we all love you! Dewey, Ross, and Grant- stay strong by allowing others to help lift you up. Cheri's got the best cheer squad around! ❤️
-Stacey (Johnson) Wright, niece, and Rachel Jensen, sister-in-law
Organizer and beneficiary
Ross Johnson
Beneficiary